Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The high flying industrialist and Congress M.P from Kurushektra supporting Khap Panchat was not surprising. For without the tacit support of mainstream political Parties and its leaders, the open activities of such bodies like Khap Panchayat, in effect, challenging the law of the land and our judicial system, could not sustain. In a country where social status and economic relations are still deep rooted in feudal values, caste plays an important role even in the political sphere. Since most of these caste communities behave under a ‘herd psyche’, it becomes easy for their leaders to goad them enmasse to the political destinations they wish. Hence politicians vie to garner the support of the caste leaders. In a State like Haryana where ‘Jats’ constitute about 30% of the total population, their support become the main factor in deciding the fate of political parties in elections. INLD leader, Om Prakash Chautala plunging in to the situation declaring support to the Khap panchayats proclaiming its legitimacy was an open act to consolidate and expand his base among the jat community. The prolonged silence of the incumbent Chief Minister and the inaction of the State machinery against the perpetrators of the barbaric acts of ‘honour killings’ should also to be viewed in this light. Naveen Jindal, well educated and exposed to modern civilizations and cultures may not be accepting the retrograde values the Khap Panchayat trying to uphold. But, since he is donning the role of a politician he might be compelled to take the present stand considering the ground realities in his constituency.

It is time the civil society and the democratic polity to take a serious note on the issues thrown open by the situation. How the over assertion of caste groups and caste and religion based politics dent the secular-democratic political fabric of the country. When talk about caste politics, we immediately are drawn to the post Mandal scenario when the lower castes and intermediary castes emerged as leading political forces in various States. Mayavati and Mulayam Singh Yadav in UP and Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar. However, if you just confine to the view that resurgence of hitherto subservient caste groups in the post Mandal period is the only reason for caste assertion; we would be overlooking the wider reality in the country. The rein of Indian politics, with few exceptions, has always been in the hands of the upper caste sections and the other caste groups basically were playing a subservient role. The emergence of political forces centred on casts, particularly lower castes helped boost their self respect and increase in self confidence. This has ensured their active participation in the democratic process and setting pace for a new social engineering. However lack of proper socio-economic perspective and without practicing inner democratic processes within the organization these organizations are becoming fiefdoms of its leadership and their families posing questions on its future relevance and importance.

All major political parties in the country including those who boost of their secular credentials conveniently use religions and castes for their electoral prospects. Candidates are chosen not on merit on the basis of their track record of social service or social commitment but on the basis of religious/caste credentials conforming to the dominant groups in the given constituency. Political leadership and their candidates are seen running after the religious and caste leaders praying for their blessings in order to ensure the votes of their followers. This unwarranted mixing of politics with religion and caste embolden the religious and caste leaders to extract benefits when those political parties come into power with their support. It also ensures that the feudalistic character of the society remain intact insulated from attempts of reform from within the community or from outside. The government machinery will ensure not to intervene even when it violates individual freedom enshrined in the constitution.

There are hundreds of casts and sub-casts within Hinduism and they all practice different caste and religious customs. However, each of such groups if allowed to run parallel judicial and governing systems according to their customs and choice, it would lead to chaos in the country. It is nobody’s problem if a member of the community abides by the rules set by the Khap panchayat in her/his marriage. But it definitely becomes a problem when two individuals decides to marry each other and being forcefully prevented or even get killed and their families ostracized in case they go ahead with their decision to marry. Here it is the duty of the government establishment to ensure the safety of the targeted people. However, the government fail to fulfill their constitutional obligations for the fear of risking the ire of such strong caste groups. And this politics of convenience is the major reason for most of the social evils still prevailing in the country. Political parties also have a responsibility to act as a reformist force to take the society forward. On the contrary in India it is the major political parties in fact helping the communities to remain enchained to the past, feudalistic retrograde values. Hence we still discuss the Khap panchat even in the age of 21st Century.

Monday, May 10, 2010

By the time the Common Wealth Games begins, Delhi would have a totally changed look. It would have further widened roads with beautifully designed tiled foot paths. There are new fly-overs under construction at various points to make the flow of traffic uninterrupted. New well laid out parks would add to the city’s beauty. The metro rail net work will cover most part of the city including an express way corridor connecting Airport. The sleek low floor A/C and Non A/C buses would provide a new look to the road traffic. The makeover is aimed to make the city a world class one. Going by the preparations, it is sure; Delhi would soon become a world class city. Enormous amount of money has been pumped in by the government. Lion’s part of the annual budget has been earmarked for the preparations of the games in Delhi. However there are apprehensions who will inherit the world class city once the games are over. Who will be allowed to live in this world class city, rather, who can afford to live in Delhi?

Delhi is already the metropolitan city where cost of living is at the highest in the country. The escalating prices of essential commodities, especially of food items, made the life miserable even for the middle class sections. Though price hike is felt across the country, delihiites suffer more than the people in any other state, as there is no proper mechanism evolved by the government to intervene in the market or to effectively check hoarding etc. For example, in Kerala, the southernmost State of India, Tur Dal was selling at Rs.35-00 while at the same period the price of the same product was between Rs.90-00 to Rs.100-00 in Delhi. Kerala is a food deficit state and totally depends on other states for its procurement of food commodities. The State Government could arrest the spiraling prices to certain extent by ensuring distribution of pulses and cereals through Public Distribution System. However, instead of taking steps to curb price hike, the Delhi government in its last Budget increased tax on almost everything. The VAT was increased from 12.5% to 20% that would further increase the prices of all commodities in the city. Subsidy on the Gas cylinder was withdrawn and CNG was brought under VAT, that was excluded previously. The ticket charges of DTC were increased by 50% and Delhi Metro too substantially increased their charges. The government justifies the additional levies on the requirement of funds towards infrastructure development for the forthcoming Common Wealth Games. A game at the expense of the life of common people!

Now the government is talking about increasing the tariff of electricity keeping in abeyance the suggestion of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission to slash the tariff in view of the surplus profit the private distribution companies made after the privatization of power sector in the State. But the State Government stand is dubious, as it only helps the private profiteers. Any elected government’s primordial duty is to protect the interest of the people who elected them to power. The Chief Minister declared that the people of Delhi are rich enough to pay any increase in the power tariff. The message is clear, she dreams of a World Class City inhabited by world class people, the wealthy who can afford its high living costs, cleansed off the poor.

The Chief Minister and the former Mayor of Delhi made public their displeasure on the increasing number of migrants in the city that they rued for the worsening civic conditions. These political leaders forget that migration from the poor rural areas is a creation of themselves. A result of the uneven development pattern, where some pockets are pampered while neglecting other areas. This has undoubtedly created unrest among sections and vested interests try to exploit the situation to their narrow political interests. Raj Thackray’s MNS and Shiv Sena built their political fiefdom raising tirade against the migrants. If the target was the South Indians in the 60s, it is now the migrants from Bihar and UP in Mumbai. However, owing to political compulsions, Shiela Dixit or national political parties like Congress and BJP cannot take an open stand as the MNS or Shiv Sena. But there are more novel ideas to chase away the poor, particularly the migrant labourers.

Migrants are the worst affected by the high living costs as they are lowest paid and without a dwelling place of their own. The rents of the houses are also subjected to periodical upward hike. Going by the current rate of increase in the cost of living in Delhi, it would soon become impossible for large sections of poor people to sustain, forcing them to return to the places they came from. Thus the ‘World Class City’ may be cleansed of the poor, leaving it exclusively for the use of the moneyed ‘World Class People’.

When a child cries for a particular thing and if that demand is not affordable, illogical or not practical according to the parents, what normally the parents do is to promise something else to divert attention from the kid, for the time being. Next day, the kid cries for the new thing offered and naturally forgets the first one he or she was asking for. This is an example how we divert attention in a family. Unfortunately, the same thing is witnessing in the case of our Ruling class also. When the burning issues are staying hot and puts the Government in a precarious situation, Government tries to raise or create a new issue, to divert the attention from the present problem. Many a cases the media in the country also play a pivotal role to help the government in this matter.

The ongoing issues in the Country is an apt example for this. As all of us are aware, the most relevant and important issue which has been evoking angry protests from the common man in the country is price hike. Since this UPA government has taken the reign, price rise has become a monster taking toll on the helpless poor mass. Most of the political parties and social organizations have been attacking the government on this issue and it is also a reality that the government is not yet able to do anything positively to tackle this issue apart from some hollow promises. The Public Distribution system is in total disarray. The food security is in great danger.

Addressing the press in Mumbai on April 25, 2009, Dr Manmohan Singh had promised that, if voted back to power, within 100 days he would roll out an action plan to revive the economy. I still fail to understand when did the 100 days begin and when were they likely to end? Under an economist PM, we have seen a spectre of zero or negative inflation while the prices of essential commodities went through the roof! Forget the common man; it even dumbfounded the students of economics.

Now, the Parliament session just concluded. Parliament for the past few sessions were in chaos on account of alarming price hike and its aftereffects. Many political parties held a number of demonstrations and strikes region-wise and nationwide. It did create reflection in parliament too though it didn’t produce any productive result.

But now, where is that issue gone? Government seemed to be relaxed that the issue got ignored or sidelined and of course the media did its role also nicely! Recently we witnessed hot debates, arguments on account of Telecom minister’s corruption scandal and Mumbai motormen strike. Couple of days before the issue was phone tapping. IPL controversy and BCCI role and the ministers’ involvement also did a major part to divert the attention. Of course don’t forget Mr Shashi Taroor’s controversy. Yea, entire country and the media celebrated these like a T20 game. Government and Media enjoy it and common man sits with their fingers crossed and with their stomach tightened. I am not saying the all these should not be discussed, but these discussions should not at the cost of forgetting or bypassing the real and prominent issues like price hike affecting the poor people of the country.

We can not ignore the role of media in the entire series of events. It is not an unknown truth that Indian media particularly the electronic media stands for the establishment and serves the promoters interest. We can also very easily understand what these media houses are up to. They have their own vested interest and operate like a money spinning shops. Whether it is right or only a wishful unrealistic thinking, people in the country expect some positive and pro-common attitude from the media, though history says it never happened. This country has a number of burning issues to be highlighted and addressed but unfortunately our media do not show the required interest. We never see any determined effort from the media highlighting the issues related to price hikes, drought which is the severest ever in the last decade affecting millions of poverty stricken farmers across the country. Of course, media is after the TRP rating, I understand. We are served with meaningless news-stories and unimportant issue in golden trays and we relish it, though we understand that it has nothing to do with our (the common man) interest.

To help the Government the media are busy to identify new sensational issues to divert the public attention from the core issues. We saw how media celebrated Ruchika, Nathari, Mattoo cases, and of course the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. We also know how the media took interest to report the nationwide protests against the price hike. It finds more importance to discuss issues which got no relevance to public interest like what Jinnah or Nehru did 60 years or any petty issues like that. I reiterate that, though it never happened in the case of visual media in the country, we wish the media be the torchbearer of revolutionary ideas and thoughts required for galvanizing public mood in bringing change in our society and country. But it gives more importance to the crap news of ‘’Rakhi Sawant ka Swayambar’’ than highlighting the issues of poverty, crime, unemployment, illiteracy, lack of food, deficiency of health facilities, corruption, price hike etc.

I believe that a rethinking on these issues should be done by all the people concerned. If we don’t see and respond against these anti poor policies of the Government with the help of the media and simply stand as a bystander, the History will blame you tomorrow. Don’t think that you are not affected and so why you should be worry. The issues creating difficulties for a section of people today, would definitely affect you too tomorrow; but remember when you scream then, nobody will be around to cry for you.

About Me

Jansanskriti was founded in the year 1980 as a progressive socio- cultural organisation devoted to evolving a confluence of social, ethnic and cultural groups of the national capital of Delhi and surrounding areas. The basic perception of the founders was that cultural and social activities should have a distinctive political approach and should motivate efforts to build a just and egalitarian society. This perspective differentiated Jansanskriti from the umpteen other socio- cultural organisations.
Jansanskriti is one of the largest socio- cultural organizations in the country with a wide membership base spread across Delhi,Hariana and Uttar Pradesh.